It is the Day of the Dead, and I smile knowing my ancestors and my guides have never been more alive.
Papi and Wela Virginia
have never left my side, but today—
Today we rejoice
in companionable silence
We speak through our eyes
Kompa, Rasin, y La Sonora Ponceña boom
Jodia, I celebrate Fet Gedé communing with my spiritual ancestros, mis guías, y familias as we trance in dance, offering, and commune.
Uplifting both realms to be
Juntos
Papi will
hold my two fingers to dance
Tell me a story
as my Bis-abuela riega sus carcajadas
along with the white rose-petal path we build
And we glide above the earth, in a circle, aquí no hay lamentos, ni sufrimientos,
There’s no diabetes or kidney failure.
Just joy.
I twirl
until this thin veil of loneliness and solitude dissolve
the Lwas surround us or maybe grab hold of me
show me what it is to remember
I am goddess child
Dessaline descendant
magia encostrada
en mi machete
in the brutality of my gentle resilience
Reality
is interwoven with reverence and song.
I prepared a feast,
para que vayan con la barriga llena
back,
only to be visited again
in dreams and moments of surrender.
I barefoot, the tambores in my rasin musik shaking these four walls of the tangible
to unlock something sacred,
mas grande que el dia de los inocentes, deeper than Halloween,
hungrier than my stardust-filled veins of Toussaint, Tainos, Marie Claire, and Anacaona.
Aquí saboreo libertad, vodou, poder, and espiritismo. Aquí no hay miedo.
Today is the Day of the Dead, and I make it un party de marquesina in both realms.
Where we all belong
as descendants of
ex-slave warriors
from Ayiti and
ongoing freedom fighters in Borinquen.
Hoy, celebro con los mios!
Lysz Flo is an AfroCaribbean Latine, polyglot, word artist, and indie author, member of The Estuary Collective, Creatively Exposed podcast host, Voodoonauts Summer 2020 Fellow and Obsidian Black Listening 2022 Fellow. She released her poetry novel, Soliloquy of an Ice Queen, March 2020. She is a Grubstreet educator since 2020. Her poems can be found in FIYAH Magazine, Hellebore, Skin Coloured Mag, Digging Press; she also has various multimedia work at O, Miami. Online Crystal and Spiritual wellness shop owner at Astrolyszics.com
